Settling Accounts: Return Engagement
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4.1 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Turtledove's alternate history of a century-long American civil war continues . . .
continues . . . The first book in the Settling Accounts sequence tells the story of an utterly different World War II.
It is 1939, and the world is overshadowed by the thunder-clouds of war, once again. In this alternate world the US prepares for war while across the Pacific Japan is ready to fight again.
Once again brother fights brother, friend against friend and the New World is ravaged by all the horrors of modern warfare.
This is the first book in a new series on the first global conflict by the modern day master of alternate history. Epic, exciting and incredibly powerful, it deals with relatively recent past so cleverly. This is World War II as it might have been...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this well-thought-out alternate history, the first in a new trilogy, Turtledove (American Empire) combines elements of the Civil War and WWII with disturbing results. Confederate President Jake Featherstone has launched an undeclared war of revenge on the U.S.A., with Rebel "barrels" (tanks) cutting the nation in half. U.S. President Al Smith doesn't sue for peace as expected, causing unreconstructed Canadians to sabotage the now-vital Northern rail system holding the nation together. Mormon separatists have once more revolted against the federal government, and Louis Armstrong, who has defected to the North, brings with him chilling evidence of the Confederate "population reductions" (genocide) of African-Americans. Turtledove's depiction of how easily the C.S.A. could carry out genocide and do so with less cost to the conscience than the Germans experienced in the real Holocaust coupled with the "so what?" reaction of Northerners when this is publicized makes a disturbing commentary on the state of race relations in both parts of our country. While some of the character descriptions are repetitious, the author handles his huge cast with admirable skill. The insights into racial politics elevate this novel to a status above mere entertainment, although it provides that aplenty.
